My thank you to Ann of Francescas Fancy for this prize for the Etsy Beadweavers very first January Challenge. I just got this baker’s dozen in the mail this past week! 5 gram bags of Delica seed beads in blues and purples. Aren’t they yummy?

I don’t have anything to write today, so I thought I’d spread some Etsy love around. Here are some of my favorite items on Etsy.
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First up, a dragonfly from Mythologicae

You can get him in different colors, too! This is actually one of the earliest itesm I favorited on Etsy. I just think he’s too darned cute. You should see the hatchlings, too…
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Next up… a moth ornament/brooch from BlueTerracotta

I love this little guy, and he’s pretty reasonably priced. The shipping from the UK might be a bit of change, though.
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This will probably freak out my friend Barb; she’s not into eyeball jewelry. But I love it, and the artist has made wire wrap skills.
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And finally, here’s a polymer clay vessel from KateTractonDesigns

She also does lovely seed bead work. Check her stuff out!
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That’s it for today. More next week!

I can’t seem to find these, so I’m reposing them. I apologize if they are repeats!

The World’s Easiest Bling Bracelet – Swarovski Crystals and Lampwork.Here’s another super trendy bracelet that’s actually really easy to make.Materials:
* 7″ Swarovski chain – mine is on a blue ultrasuede base, but you can get it from Etsy without a base.
Expect to pay about $6/foot.
Here’s a link to a store with stuff that would work just dandy.http://www.etsy.com/listing/95899190…inestone-chain

* Leather Lacing – about 18″

*Lacing Thread – you can use whatever you’ve got.
I have some black hemp here that would work, but I’ve decided to use C-lon Macrame thread since I have some pretty colors.
As a side note, I get my C-lon from here:http://www.caravanbeads.net/ProdList.asp?scat=76

* Glue – I suggest .527 watch glue or “Zap-a-Gap.”

* Bead or Button for closure – of course I used a boro bead…

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Fold your leather lacing in half. This is going to be the button loop, so make sure it fits over whatever you’ve picked as a closure.
Lay your lacing along the same line as the leather. See which side I have the cut end on? I’ll be wrapping the loop shank over the top of this to conceal it.
You can use a spot of glue to keep it all in place.

Wrap the lacing tightly around the leather to make the loop shank. I suggest at least 1/4″.
Keep it together at the end with a half-hitch knot. You can use another spot of glue if you’d like.

Lay the swarovski chain over the lacing. You can use a spot of glue to keep it in place if you’d like, but its going to be the wraps that really keep it all together.

Wrap tightly between each swarovski stone.

You could continue a full length of the bracelet, or you could decide you want more lampwork bling. I cut my Swarovski into separate pieces and added some boro bead goodness.

At the end, make a shank in the same way you did at the beginning. If you’d like to hide your cut lacing thread end, you can thread it on a needle and sew it back in through the loop.
Use a spot of glue to hold everything in place, if you’d like.

String on your bead or button and knot to hold it together. Again, you can use a spot of glue if you’d like.

Cut all raw edges. Wait for your glue to dry.

Wear and enjoy!

Other options:
Here is a bracelet on Etsy by westprince done without the lampwork beads.

Here is a bracelet done exactly the same way, only using ball chain. This is on Etsy by sukoshishop.

Yup, I’ve blithered on for years about myself on this blog. Its way past time to show a little bit of love.

I’ve been on the Etsy Beadweavers Team for a number of years now. Its really active – members have to join in on the challenges on a regular basis as well as keeping a minimum number of beadwoven pieces in their shop.

Teams are a community feature on Etsy where you can connect with other members. With Teams, you can meet people with common interests, and collaborate. The Teams feature makes it easy for you to join an existing team or to create, maintain, and promote a new one. It’s also a way for shoppers to browse by theme or location and find shops that might interest them. Teams sometimes do arts/crafts fairs in real life, promote each other’s shops and hold challenges or contests.

I am part of a number of teams on Etsy and I’ll speak about a few more of my teams over the next few weeks.

From the team announcement: “The Etsy Beadweavers Team is made up of bead artists who aspire to successfully market their beadwoven creations on Etsy.com and elsewhere. As such the EBW Team has two areas of focus:1) Practical business help, including sales promotion by networking, marketing and creating awareness of beadweaving as an art. 2)Artistic inspiration, instruction and encouragement.. The Beadweavers’ creations are different from many of the traditional beaded items, in that they are woven from hundreds or thousands of tiny beads to create intricate designs and pictures. These weavings take the form of both art and jewelry. Each piece takes many hours to complete, with some larger pieces taking weeks or even months.”

Each month, the Etsy Beadweavers pose a challenge to their members. Many of these pieces are some of the most creative beadweaving pieces I’ve seen. You can see the current challenge by typing in EBWC in the search bar when you go to Etsy or heading on over to http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/

I’ve actually managed to finish a brand new piece in time to get into the most recent Etsy Beadweavers challenge. I’ll write more about it on the 10th when the polls are open and you can vote for your favorite!

Its a huge team! Ready for the list? Go on and have fun – they have some wonderful pieces and will be thrilled if you favorite them or share them on pinterest, twitter or facebook.

** 20 grams 3.5 cube beads. The hole needs to be 1mm so it slides over the leather. This would also look GREAT with tiny spacer beads.

** Button or Lampwork glass bead

**Twisted Wire Needles

**Some glue – I suggest watch glue.
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Alrighty, ready to get started? Cut the three pieces of leather as directed in the materials above.Find the approximate middle point on them. We’ll be starting by making the buttonhole loop, so the important part of this is that we start about 1/2″ off center and that we make sure the loop is big enough for your button or bead.

Use the c-lon to bundle them together. Wrap them together, tie off and then go ahead and start weaving (over one, under one, over one and around the bundle) to flatten your pieces. I’ve got them pinned down to my work surface.

Using the same technique from the previous/basic version here, weave the beads between the leather “weft”. Remember to always go through the beads as you pass them with the needle, otherwise you’ll have unsightly c-lon loops. If you were to use the same size beads, this would allow you to do multirow bracelets. Since I’m trying to make a loop, however, the outer row is bigger beads than the inner row (I’ve used 8/0 seed beads in the inner row and cubes on the outer row).

Since the loop wasn’t curving fast enough, I had to add increases in the outer row. The following photos are a little overexposed, sorry.

Okay, so increasing one side is actually a royal pain in the a$$ because you have to make sure you do it evenly and it has to match your bracelet closure (button or bead) when you are finished. I had to take mine out twice before it worked out. But my final increase was done every THIRD cube bead. A better way to do this would be just to make sure your outer bead is significantly larger than the inner bead so the curve naturally happens.

As a side note, this does not match the increases in the photos, but every THIRD bead worked for a 3/4 inch button.

To work an increase, add the cube (outside/larger) bead and then instead of going directly to the inner bead double back and add another cube/larger bead. On the next pass, you’ll add both the outer and inner beads as normal.

Once your buttonhole is complete, you’ll want to wrap a shank on it. Put a spot of glue on the shank to keep it all together.

Now… You can either go ahead and use the same technique to spread your 6 strands out and weave between them with the ladder stitch technique (this makes a wide, really wonderful bracelet) shown above… You need to make certain that all your beads have approximately the same width, otherwise the bracelet will undulate, which actually can give you another completely different design idea.

….or you can braid.

I’ve decided to braid because after doing the ladder stitch three times for that buttonhole I was totally done with the whole idea. I have to tell you here that the only previous ladder stitch bracelet I managed to finish was the one I made for the previous tutorial before I got totally bored.

We’re going to use a six-strand braid, which is why I had you cut so much leather. You’ll see below that I also covered the shank with a little bit of peyote stitch since I can’t leave well enough alone and I’d done a messy job wrapping that shank. We’re going to use a six-strand flat braid here.

Flatten out your six strands.

Here’s how this works WITHOUT beads.
1 * From the right, you’ll take the first strand (I’ll call this the working cord), go under the second strand and over the third strand.
2 * From the left you’ll take the first strand, go over the second strand, under the third strand and over the fourth strand (which was the working cord from the other side).

Here’s how this works WITH beads.
I’ve used cube beads here, but I’ll bet this would be great with lampwork spacers. Remember, you just have to make them big enough to go over a 1mm leather code. I’m not sure what size mandrel this is.

1* From the right, you’ll take the first strand (I’ll call this the working cord), go under the second strand, add a bead, and over the third strand.
2* From the left you’ll take the first strand, go over the second strand, under the third strand, add a bead, and over the fourth strand (which was the working cord from the other side).

Repeat steps 1 & 2.

The finished beadwork will appear to have a herringbone pattern.

Braid to the end of your bracelet. Try to braid as tightly as possible, and stretch the leather a little bit as you go. You’ll see the tension even out as you continue to work the braid.

At the end, you can either knot the button/bead directly onto the leather or you can add a piece of c-lon and make a shank that attaches to the button/bead. That’s what I did because my Czech button has a tiny metal shank in the back that only went over a single piece of leather.

Here’s a photo of the finished piece again – enjoy!
Okay, now lets see your versions!